Companies advised to offer hardship allowances to attract the best talent
The attractiveness of Hong Kong for expatriates has dropped substantially because of its poor air quality and increasing health risks, according to a study.
Releasing its annual location-ranking surveys on expatriate living conditions, ECA International, a membership organisation for international human-resources professionals, says that Hong Kong is losing its edge when it comes to recruiting the best talent.
ECA International recommends that to maintain their competitiveness companies recruiting employees to work in Hong Kong should offer a 10 per cent hardship allowance on top of basic salaries as compensation, even though this would raise business costs.
In three rankings, the company compares cities' living standards for west European expatriates, Asian expatriates and Asians living within Asia. While Hong Kong is still among the top five cities for Asians within Asia, it fell in the global rankings for Asians living abroad, from 20th to 32nd place last year among the 257 locations surveyed. Singapore remained the best location for Asians living abroad, followed by Sydney in second place and Melbourne third.
When it comes to cities' attractiveness to west Europeans, Hong Kong is ranked 66th (down from 60 in 2004), compared with 58th for Singapore (51). ECA's lower ranking for Asian cities in this category was due to their cultural and climatic differences for West Europeans.
The rankings are based on scores calculated for 15 categories of objective data such as air quality, climate, crime rate, recreational facilities, infrastructure, health risks and natural disasters.
